Lights in the Darkness: Short Stories, #1

By James Thymes

Lights in the Darkness is a collection of short fiction stories about overcoming some of the various trials and tribulations that some will face in life. These stories describe the journeys of several people from very different backgrounds who find their way out of some incredibly dark places, though sometimes appearing to be utterly hopeless situations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Thymes
• Release date: Jan 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201764852

Book preview

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Lights in the Darkness is a collection of short fiction stories about overcoming some of the various trials and tribulations that some will face in life. These stories describe the journeys of several people from very different backgrounds who find their way out of some incredibly dark places, though sometimes appearing to be utterly hopeless situations.

TROUBLE IN PINNACLE

***1***

The sound of metal objects rattling woke John Williams from a sound sleep. It was only his second time on an airplane, but John had always had the strange gift of being able to sleep almost anywhere and had drifted off without realizing it. As he looked out the window at the seemingly endless wilderness below him, he wondered if they were getting close to their destination. He had a strange mix of feelings at that moment because he deeply missed his friends and family, he was worried about what was happening to everyone back, he was anxious about the unknown that awaited them, but he also had a profound sense of joy and excitement about who was with him on this crazy journey and wondered at times if it was all really happening.

As the plane finally started to descend in altitude, John could feel the pressure build in his ears as he thought about how so much had changed over the last several years and about the recent unbelievable developments. Just a few short years before, he and some of his best friends hated each other and Sara was just a pretty girl from another school who he'd seen in passing. The Williams family had bought a small farm and moved to Pinnacle from Texas when he was very young, so John had no memory of any other place as home. He was a tough kid who grew up working hard doing everything from bucking hay to cleaning stalls, and he had a noticeable scar over his right eye from being bucked off a horse when he was younger. He had long curly brown hair that a lot of the girls loved, and the kids at the school all called him Hank because of his last name and the fact that he was always listening to old country music.

The two main High Schools in the area were similar in that they were pretty much divided into five different groups of kids. There were still many farms and ranches in this area of Montana that had been around for generations, and the kids that lived and worked on them were called Hicks by the other kids. Many of these kids worked before and after school to help their parents keep things going, so they would sometimes come to school smelling like farm animals and wearing dirty clothes. Since there was an Indian reservation close to town, about a tenth of each school was made up of kids from Native American families who had moved into town because they believed it could give their kids a better life. These kids were called Rezzys by the other kids and like the Hicks, they were mistreated by many of them because they mainly lived in the poor areas of town. The rich kids who lived in the wealthy communities overlooking the town were called the Alphas which was the smallest but most powerful group. Most of these kids had moved to town with their families from big cities within the last decade when development in the area started to take off. These kids were raised to become the ruling class, so they were expected to assume leadership positions in the schools and they all drove new cars and wore expensive clothes. The poorest kids in the area, who were mostly from the trailer parks and apartment complexes, made up the biggest population of the schools and were called Trogs by the other kids. Many of these kids were from single-parent families or had parents who lost their jobs when the new businesses moved into the area and brought employees with them from other states. The last group, which decreased in number every year and didn't have a name, was made up of the kids from middle-class families like the small business owners, the military families, or those who worked in the trades. Most of the town's athletes and college students came from this group.

As with most schools, there were kids from each group who were convinced that they should be in a different group than what they were assigned. Of course, there were a lot of kids who wanted to be Alphas, there were middle-class kids who wanted to be Hicks and vice versa and there were even some Alphas who rejected their status and hung out in different groups. Stacey Webber was one of these kids. She had moved to Pinnacle with her family six years before from San Francisco, where they had sold their property for millions and built their dream home in the Heights. Her dad was a wealthy business executive who was on his fourth marriage to a woman who was only ten years older than Stacey, and she hadn't seen her real mom since she was five years old.

Stacey and Sara Taylor met in Middle School and became best friends but because of the way the school boundaries were drawn up, they were not able to go to the same High School. Since her father was from a native tribe in northern Alaska, Sara was called a Rezzy by many of the other kids due to her dark skin. They met the year that Stacey moved to town which was the same year Sara's dad was killed in a construction accident, and they bonded closely as they helped each other through a very difficult time. Since Stacey rejected her social status and refused to sever her relationship with Sara, she was bullied relentlessly by the Alphas and some of the other kids. She was called names like Injun Lover or Skanky Webber and she would often get shoulder checked or have her books knocked out of her hands in the halls. Although there were a few kids who stuck up for her when they saw her getting bullied and she had a few friends there, she deeply dreaded going to school every day. Finally, at the end of her Sophomore year, she convinced her dad to allow her to leave their house and move in with Sara and her mom, which allowed her to transfer from Central to Westview.

Sara's parents met when they were teenagers when Evette was on a mission trip to her father's village to help with urgent medical needs. Their village was in a very remote area that was a 25-mile hike from the nearest accessible floatplane landing site. Yuka had been hurt in a dog sledding accident at the time and while Evette was caring for him, the two fell in love. When she had to leave the village, they wrote to each other often until they were able to get back together and marry a couple of years later. They discovered Pinnacle when they were on a trip to Glacier National Park shortly after they were married and agreed that it would be a great place to raise a family. Yuka was a hard worker and was hired as a construction laborer by a small local company, and he quickly worked his way up to where he was operating equipment. Evette went through nursing school and got a good job at the local hospital, so their combined salaries allowed them to buy a house in a good neighborhood just before Sara was born.

Yuka loved his job and most of the people he worked with, but when the area started to grow and the small company he was working for was bought out by a much larger one, he was able to keep his job but he was treated terribly by the new management. After only being with the new company a short time, he was killed in an accident at work that seemed to be obvious negligence of the company, but it was ruled in court that his death was caused by his actions and the company had to pay nothing to the family. Evette was fired from the hospital shortly after Yuka died for what her boss called job performance issues when the real reason was that she had voiced her concerns about some new unethical practices she had been seeing to her new supervisor. When she applied at the other hospital across town as well as several of the smaller clinics in the area, she was never even called back for an interview, so she ended up taking a job as a waitress at a local diner. When her husband died, she thought their life insurance would pay off their house but instead, she was refunded the money they had paid into it, which amounted to barely enough to cover the funeral. Since she had to take a significant pay cut when she lost her job, she could no longer afford her mortgage payment and was forced to sell her house. She was only able to sell for about what she owed on her house so she moved her and Sara into a small 2-bedroom apartment. When Stacey moved in with them, Evette let the girls each have a bedroom and she moved out into the living room and slept on the couch. One night as they ate dinner, Stacey asked them if it would be ok if she called Evette’s mom, to which she and Sara both adamantly agreed. The girls loved and respected Evette, and they did their best to have the apartment cleaned and dinner made on weeknights before she would get home from work.

Evette had grown up going to church but had only found a real relationship with God and committed her life to Him, during the grieving process after her husband's death. When she wasn't working or attending one of the girls' school functions, she would often volunteer to help troubled kids at the local youth shelter and was loved by those around her. Evette struggled to pay the bills but she didn't complain, and people marveled at the fact that she made life look easy and always seemed to have a smile on her face. When most people around her with much more than what she had were unsatisfied and bitter, she had peace about her that made people want to be around her. She was a great mother who Sara's friends all went to for advice and since she put Sara and Stacey first and decided she was going to stay single, she was constantly having to politely reject the advances of men at the restaurant.

***2***

Nick Walker is John's best friend but it sure didn't start that way. They went to the same schools from Elementary through High School and disliked each other from the start because their families had taught both of them from birth to distrust and avoid those of each other’s race. They each had a small group of loyal friends with who they spent most of their time with and these two groups hated each other. They would sit at different tables and hang out in different areas of the school, and even though some of them were on some of the same sports teams together, they would avoid each other as much as possible.

One Saturday night at a party on the mountain changed things between them. It was mostly the usual suspects from Central on Rampage Mountain that night, but this time there were a bunch of kids there from Westview as well. Most of the kids from the two schools knew each other from sports or word of mouth, but it was mostly just by face or name and they rarely went to the same parties. Like most other times at parties in this gravel pit, a couple of the kids from Central used their chainsaws to cut up some dead trees in the area to get a huge bonfire going. As the night wore on, everyone was spread out in mixed groups of kids from both schools, talking and having fun and some of them were getting pretty intoxicated.

In a world every bit as real as the material one yet invisible to people, several demons walked amongst the kids at the party. These demons are red ugly winged creatures twisted by evil, with long claws,  fangs, and yellow eyes that glow, and they are led by an especially crafty one named Haziel. Although they are smart and powerful creatures, demons cannot control a person’s mind or force them to do anything, so they use tactics like suggestion. They are always searching for better ways to influence people, so they especially love when people do things that open up pathways to their spirits like practicing channeling or Yoga, praying directly to them, or other similar things, but intoxication works almost as well. The more